When most people think about medicine, they think about the product itself — a pill, a bottle, a box. I wanted to rethink that experience. My redesign of Benadryl packaging wasn’t just about creating a new box; it was about guiding users through a small, self-contained journey, helping them understand, carry, and use the medication safely and efficiently.
The Challenge
Benadryl is a popular over-the-counter allergy medication, relied upon by adults and children alike. The challenge was twofold:
- Communicating information effectively – users need to quickly understand dosage, side effects, and ingredients. Mistakes in this area can be serious.
- Designing for mobility and accessibility – many users carry the product throughout the day, whether in a bag, pocket, or wallet. The packaging needed to be compact, intuitive, and self-contained.
The Design Solution
Instead of treating the box as a static container, I approached it as a step-by-step journey:
External Packaging:
The outer layer presents only the essential information to make a purchase: number of pills, target symptoms, and ingredients for allergy checks. This ensures clarity at a glance without overwhelming the user.
Internal Packaging:
Opening the package reveals a carefully paced layout. Users encounter warnings and dosage instructions first, prioritizing safety. Directions are conveyed using icons and simple silhouettes to clearly communicate age-specific doses — something that traditional packaging often fails to do effectively.
The pills remain attached until they are individually popped out, helping users:
- Keep track of remaining medication without opening the package
- Retain directions for reference
- Avoid misdosing, particularly for children
The result is a wallet-sized, portable package that guides users naturally through the information they need, presenting it in a digestible, intuitive flow.
Lessons & Reflections
This project reinforced a few key design principles I carry into all my work:
- Think about the experience, not just the object. Even a small, familiar product can be transformed by guiding users through the right sequence of information.
- Prioritize clarity and safety. Especially in contexts where mistakes can have serious consequences, visual hierarchy and pacing are critical.
- Design for context. People carry medicine on the go; the packaging needs to work as a complete system in a user’s daily life.
Even years after this project, I’m proud of this approach. By treating packaging as a journey rather than just a box, I created a design that respects the user’s needs, prioritizes safety, and turns a mundane object into a thoughtfully guided experience.
